Whitepaper: Virtual Protection Relay

A Paradigm shift in power system protection.

As the energy sector is confronted with the high penetration of renewable energy sources, one of the key aspects of the grid controls which are put under stress is the grid protection sub-system. To operate and maintain effective grid protection with high penetration of renewable resources require a level of agility and programmability for protection systems not available in today’s mainstream protection relay devices. What’s more, when considering that there is still a large install base of older generation devices across the grid, utilities are faced with a generational decision on how to re-invent and reform their entire protection infrastructure for the agile and intelligent grid.

This whitepaper, co-authored by Intel and Kalkitech describes the virtual protection relay (VPR) concept – an architecture where software-defined and virtualized platforms are deployed to host the critical circuit protection functions for an advanced and agile grid.

It is fascinating to see a single box with multiple virtual machines each acting as a virtual protection relay; that can perform the tasks of multiple protection relays handling the different protection functions, processing sampled values, and making decisions. It is ascertained that the use of virtualization technologies is needed to unlock the potential of the grid to deliver reliable, available, and resilient electricity supply for our low-carbon economy of the future.